By the time we moved to Nebraska around 1971 my dad bought a set of Lego gears. These are pretty good sized gears with fairly large teeth. I would almost say they were on the same scale as Duplo blocks...but not quite. I still have some of these gears, as well as a lot of the Lego bricks & pieces from those early years. Below is a photo of one of the early gears I found in my stash.
Through the mid-‘70s we acquired a modest amount of spare Lego blocks and probably some small sets. I seem to recall a flea market in Colorado that had boxes and boxes of spare bricks for sale and we may have picked up some of them. My first recollection of purchasing a specific model was the “Swiss Chalet” which is listed as set number 349 or 349-1. This would have been in the mid-‘70s.
In the late ‘70s my mom bought me a couple of Technic and Space sets. I have to research those to see exactly which ones they are. At a flea market I also picked up a BUNCH of the blue train tracks – specifically the 90-degree crossings. I’m pretty sure there were also straight tracks and both the inside and outside curved tracks in that purchase.
In the mid-‘80s I lived in England for three years and my Legos went with me. I have some recollection of building stuff with the Technic parts and a specific memory of some sort of aerial tramway car you might see in a mountain setting. Once specific memory I also have is purchasing a train set at an English toy store in Peterborough. I didn’t have a car in England so I had to ride the bus to and from the big shopping mall in Peterborough.
During my time in England I was well aware the Lego hometown of Billund, Norway was just across the water from England. I really wanted to visit Legoland, Billund but I never made the time. The closest I ever got was photographing a Maersk DHC-7 at Southend’s airport during a Billund-Southend-Billund turnaround in November 1985. To this day I have never been to any of the Legoland parks.
Very early ‘90s I was living in Arizona and my mom brought to me a couple of the Pirate sets, one of them was the large Black Seas Barracuda pirate ship. Sweet!!
Below are a couple photos I just took (March 2013) of the box. The box contains some hull parts for both the Black Seas Barracuda as well as the Caribbean Clipper. There is also another, unidentified, ship's hull in there and most likely additional pirate ship parts from sets aquired second hand. Additionally I have what appears to be another full set of red/white sails...
Over the years my dad has picked up various batches of Legos during his visits to flea markets. No serious purchases or anything like that, just the occasional box or two of mixed pieces to add to my “pile”. Mom was also good at collecting a LOT of toys from the fast food restaurants, so I have some of the small polybag freebies from McDonalds.
Present Day
Ok, so now we’re in 2013. Despite all my other interests and the passage of several decades since those early years, I still have the vast majority of my Legos and my interest has never waned. The plethora of Lego sets for sale in the stores ALWAYs manages to catch my eye and make me stop and have a look. I’ve been a casual observer of Legos over the years but I’m still amazed at all the various themes and the evolution and sophistication of the brand. And like just about everything else, there is so much Lego information available on the Internet. I actually have the Internet to blame for my most recent (March 2013) interest in buying some Lego sets. But before we get into that, a few weeks before this latest spree began, I was in my local WalMart and I purchased a small Lego Creator set: #31004 Fierce Flyer. Read on:
It was Monday, March 11th 2013 and I was researching a Mrs. Potato Head toy online with the intention of making a flying model rocket similar to my successful rocket conversion of a Mr. Potato Head I stumbled across the Mr. Potato Head Star Wars Darth Tater toy and ordered it online for later pickup at my local WalMart store. Somehow the Lego Monster Fighters Ghost Train set popped up and I was hooked at first sight. I have an active interest in trains, and the old school “Movie Monsters” like Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Mummy, Dracula, etc. are pretty cool too. So, in my opinion, the Monster Fighters is about coolest theme currently available, after the Star Wars theme of course.
The Wal-Mart webstore showed a "bundle" available, however I only ordered the Ghost Train for pick up at my local store. A little while later I got a confirmation that the Darth Tater was ready for pick up. Then a bit after that I got an email telling me the Ghost Train was NOT available. Rats. I checked availability at the other local WalMart and...Ka-CHING! they had it. So I placed the order and head up there to pick it up. That's when I get the idea to see if they would honor the "bundle" price with the Werewolf and Mummy sets. In the end, a manager was very understanding and gave me the bundle price. :-)
And so began my current mini buying-spree of Legos. I discovered Lego.com and signed up as a VIP member. I placed an order for the Haunted House, Vampyre Castle, and a second Ghost Train. After a full work week of “In Process” as the order status, the two shipping boxes showed up unexpectedly via Fed Ex on Saturday March 23rd. Ka-ching!
26 March 2013
Imagine my surprise then that while researching the Lego.com website I found a Lego Store not far from where I live. Double ka-ching!! I made my first ever visit to a Lego Store today, March 26th 2013. At the time I was hoping to find the elusive Zombie set but I learned it had been discontinued last year and they didn’t have any more of them. From what I’ve read, the Monster Fighters theme will be discontinued this year. Once I got home I found the discontinued Zombie set online and placed an order for it on the March 26th. As of March 28th I’m still waiting for a confirmation email from the seller. During the search I found a couple of other smaller Monster Fighter piece so I ordered them too.
While I was at the Lego Store I didn’t leave empty-handed. I purchased a Halloween Set ($15) to go with the Monster Fighters, a discounted set of Star Wars magnets (Boba Fett, Princess Leia, Royal Guard), and the Star Wars The Malevolence spaceship. Since I bought more than $50 I received the complimentary Republic Frigate polybag kit. Since I’m a Lego VIP member I was able to exchange some points and get $15 off my purchase!
27 March 2013
During several trips back to WalMart I’ve picked up one or two Star Wars or Monster Fighters sets. It is not my intention to collect the whole Star Wars series but I am picking up several sets I find attractive. In fact, earlier this week I placed another order from Lego.com and it was delivered quickly on March 27th, 2013. This order included Jabba’s Palace, Rancor Pit, Millennium Falcon and Hoth Echo Base. It also included the complimentary Republic Frigate polybag kit.
28 March 2013
Yesterday, March 27th 2013, I visited my local military exchange to check out their selection of Legos. Various themes are well represented but only a few models from each theme. The only Monster Fighters on the shelf was the “Mad Scientist”. As for Star Wars they have X-Wing Fighter, a couple of the smaller models and about three different “Build a Universe” planet models. I picked up two more of the Star Wars models: Saesee Tiin's Jedi Starfighter and the smaller Republic Troops vs. Sith Troops.
From there it was up to WalMart to see if they still had the Star Wars 2012 Advent Calendar on closeout. I’d seen it on the shelf there within the past couple weeks but I didn’t buy one. I saw it online for ½ price ($24.99) but I couldn’t remember what the WalMart closeout price was. They still had it and it was marked $35 so I picked up one of the two they had. I also couldn’t resist the Star Wars Gungan Sub from Episode I. When I got home I found Fed Ex had delivered the previously mentioned order of Jabba’s Palace, Rancor Pit, etc. Triple Ka-ching!!!
As if all this Lego activity for the past ninety minutes wasn’t enough I decided to dig into my Lego past. From under my bed I pulled out the 22-year old Pirates “Black Seas Barracuda” box. This box is from the early 90s and still in pretty good shape. Thing is it is filled to the brim with all sorts of bricks including pieces of the Barracuda. Then I went out to the garage and dug out the ~20-gallon plastic tub filled to the top with more bricks. In the living room I laid out a blanket and dumped the bin. Literally thousands and thousands of assorted bricks and pieces, representing over five decades of Legos, spread out all over the floor. However, I didn’t find what I was specifically looking for: a stack of instruction manuals I’m pretty sure I still have. The “Barracuda” box had a few instruction manuals under the bricks but I’m sure I have a lot more, especially those concerning those Technic and “Space” sets from the late 70s. I also didn’t find any of my train-specific items except for some of those old school red train wheels that go in the 2x4 bricks and one lone piece of “inside” blue curved rail. This stuff has to be in a different box…gotta locate it pronto. I also have a sinking feeling that I tossed out a lot of the blue 90-degree crossings in the fairly recent past. I hope I’m mistaken on that account.
So where does all this lead? I’d like to build and display some of the Monster Fighters series in a glass-enclosed stand up cabinet...glass enclosed because I live in a very dusty area and trying to keep up with dust is a real chore. Same goes for the Star Wars models. Simple display scheme.
I have a longer term goal of sorting and categorizing all my loose bricks and pieces…which basically accounts for all my Legos except these most recent purchases!
29 March 2013
Ok. After searching for about an hour yesterday afternoon (and accomplishing a little spring cleaning in the process) I located the “missing” tub of bricks. I also found the blue train tracks and 90-degree crossings. Some of the crossings were broken into pieces – probably beyond repair. The photo of the switches includes the loose Level Crossing pieces from the diesel freight train set I bought in England. Those pieces are stored in the original box with the switches. Below are some photos.
